Pascal Jansen out as New York City FC coach

New York City FC wasted no time in making a move of huge significance on the first day of its offseason: Pascal Jansen is done as head coach after two seasons.

In the club's statement announcing Jansen's departure, sporting director Todd Dunivant says, "This decision follows a thorough review of the season and reflects our ambition as an organization. The search for our next Head Coach begins immediately as we prepare for the 2027 Sprint Season and build toward the opening of Etihad Park."

Jansen was in charge for 83 matches between the 2025 and 2026 seasons and he posted a record of 34W-17D-32L in all competitions. New York City FC reached the Eastern Conference final in 2025 after placing fifth in the Eastern Conference through the regular season and ninth in the Supporters' Shield standings.

Things took a severe turn for the worse in 2026, with Jansen's NYCFC missing the MLS Cup Playoffs and finishing in 11th place in the East and in 23rd place in the Supporters' Shield table, one of the worst finishes in the club's 12-season history.

A lot worked against Jansen in 2026, chief among them long-term injuries to some of his most important players, but the 53-year-old Dutch coach was unable to find the solutions he seemed so adept at finding during the 2025 season, when he coaxed solid results out of a work-in-progress NYCFC roster and got them in position to challenge for MLS Cup.

Jansen departs having gained 1.43 points per match across his 83 games at the helm, which isn't too different from the record of the coach he replaced in the New York City FC dugout. Nick Cushing gained 1.37 points per match while leading NYCFC through 107 matches in all competitions between mid-2022 and the 2024 seasons.

New York City FC Coaches, MLS Regular Season Records

When he was hired to replace Cushing, Jansen had a contract that ran through the 2028 season, so New York City likely has to pay a financial price to part ways with their still-under-contract, now-former head coach.

Todd Dunivant now gets to hire his first coach while in charge of NYCFC. Jansen, remember, was brought in during the final year of David Lee's tenure before Lee made his exit and took over soccer operations at Sporting Kansas City.

Dunivant spoke glowingly of his working relationship with Jansen when talking to the media this season, but Dunivant also spoke expectedly that this team was positioned well for the post-World Cup portion of the season.

Rather than having NYCFC take off under Jansen once new attacking signings Luighi and Bénie Traoré were integrated, the club fell apart after MLS play resumed post-World Cup, going 5W-8D-6L and falling from eighth place before the break, to 11th place, where they finished while missing the playoffs.

The club had its worst-ever record in home MLS games in 12 seasons, conceded eight goals in second-half stoppage time, and dropped far too many points through costly individual mistakes or through soft late-match performances, all things that added up to what goes down as one of the worst season's in the team's history.

Given that 2027 is expected to be the biggest year in New York City FC's history, with Etihad Park opening in Queens in July and with the club's CEO, Brad Sims, saying repeatedly that the team is targeting "flagship team of MLS" status, Jansen doesn't get a chance to improve on everything that went wrong this season.

Now all focus shifts to Todd Dunivant's first coaching search while in charge of NYCFC. Will he turn to someone familiar to the Major League Soccer landscape, or will he follow the usual NYCFC/City Football Group formula and be picking from a list of international coaching candidates?

Speculation can wait for another day, but for now, we know that the Pascal Jansen Era is over, and 2027 will bring with it yet another big change for NYCFC, this time at the head coach spot.